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Bina Nusantara TWO MAIN CATEGORIES OF RESEARCH Secondary research : Uses research that has already been done by someone else. For example, marketers often find information compiled by the U.S.

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Bina Nusantara TWO MAIN CATEGORIES OF RESEARCH Census very useful. However, in some cases, information specific enough to satisfy a firm’s needs is not publicly available. Original research that a firm does for itself is known as primary research.

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Bina Nusantara WHAT IS THE BEST RESEARCH METHOD? There is no one perfect primary research method. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and thus the appropriate method must be selected based on research needs.

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Bina Nusantara EXPERIMENT Experiments are used when the researcher wants to rule out all but one explanation for a particular observation. Suppose, for example, that we observe that sales of our brand increase when we send out coupons. However, retailers may also give us better shelf space when the coupon is out; thus, we can’t tell if it was the coupon or the shelf-placement that caused sales to increase—the two variables are confounded.

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Bina Nusantara FOCUS GROUP Focus groups involve getting a group of 6-12 consumers together to discuss product usage. Focus groups are especially useful if we do not have specific questions to ask yet, since we don’t know what consumers’ concerns might be. We start out talking broadly about the need that a product might serve, and only gradually move toward the product itself.

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Bina Nusantara IN DEPTH INTERVIEW Personal interviews involve in-depth questioning of an individual about his or her interest in or experiences with a product. The benefit here is that we can get really into depth (when the respondent says something interesting, we can ask him or her to elaborate), but this method of research is costly and can be extremely vulnerable to interviewer bias.

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Bina Nusantara OBSERVATION Observation of consumers is often a powerful tool. Looking at how consumers select products may yield insights into how they make decisions and what they look for